No previous candidate for the presidency could possibly have survived the lewd sexual references that were commonplace for Trump. But does this mean it’s OK to treat him as grossly?

With Donald Trump it seems we’re in a very different gameHe doesn’t seem to have the slightest guilt or sense of shame.When a TV moderator showed how lewd he’d often been
He asked her if her period had made her quite so mean.

With election day approaching, before an open mike,He boasted in a way that seemed a suicidal strike,The recording soon was heard by every voter in the land.Of how no female genitals were shielded from his hand.

With any other candidate this had to be the endEvangelicals quite surely would find nothing to defend.And yet his crass behavior they decided to ignoreThe age of Trump’s quite different from whatever came before.

And when it comes to boorishness there’s even more to tellHis offensiveness extended to disabled folk as well.To a critic in a wheelchair he displayed a vicious stanceJeering at “a guy who couldn’t buy a pair of pants.”

So how should we respond to these unspeakable displays?Happily our system offers lots of different ways.The First Amendment gives to us a free and open voiceAnd satire is my favorite, my remedy of choice.

For satire speaks to power and its purpose is to hitAbuses of the system with an armory of wit.Every President in turn has been subjected to its thumpSo of course it’s open season on the reign of Donald Trump.

In cartoons and in columns he’s a never-ending buttOf jokes that seem to see him as a crazy kind of nut.He’s made himself a target with his bragging and his boastsAnd their gags have raised the ratings of the late night TV hosts.

But at last it seems a comic went too far for folks like meKathy Griffin held a severed head that looked like Donald T.The reference was ISIS-like, it made the blood run coldTo make ‘em laugh that’s not the kind of thing you’d want to hold.

The outrage was tremendous, she agreed she’d gone too farMost probably it hurt her plan to be a rising star.So if you want to be a satirist your chances soon will slumpIf you’re even more offensive and more gross than Donald Trump.

Posted on Friday, June 02, 2017 (Archive on Thursday, February 27, 2020)